Moore, Blackhawks outlast Hurricanes for shootout win

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Oliver Moore and Connor Bedard scored in the shootout, and the Chicago Blackhawks defeated the Carolina Hurricanes 4-3 at Lenovo Center on Thursday.

Moore was stopped by Frederik Andersen on a breakaway in overtime but got the winner in the sixth round of the shootout on his 21st birthday.

“I wanted that one back. I was pretty [ticked off] about it,” Moore said. “I tried to call my shot on the bench. We’ve worked on shootouts a lot after practice. That was my first shootout goal in probably seven years."

Spencer Knight made 28 saves, and Ilya Mikheyev had a goal and an assist for the Blackhawks (21-22-7), who have won two in a row.

“I thought ‘Spence' was really good in the first (period),” Chicago coach Jeff Blashill said. “I thought we turned too many pucks over, went backwards too much, and that made it hard on ourselves. I thought the third was our best period. It was a gutty win by the guys.”

Joel Nystrom, Jordan Staal and Jackson Blake scored for the Hurricanes (31-15-5), who are 3-0-1 in their past four. Andersen made 19 saves.

“There [were] some good things in that game, not a lot, but I liked the push back,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “Getting right back to it, getting a goal [three] times to tie it.

“It wasn’t a great game by us. The top guys were kind of nonfactors.”

Mikheyev scored short-handed to give Chicago a 1-0 lead at 11:12 of the first period. He kept the puck on a 2-on-1 with Ryan Greene and was stopped by Andersen, but the Chicago forward tapped in the rebound on the backhand.

Carolina tied it 1-1 at 12:50. Nystrom took a backhand pass from Jesperi Kotkaniemi and scored on a short-side snap shot from the top of the left circle for his first NHL goal in his 36th game.

“I’m happy to get my first goal. I’ve been waiting for it,” Nystrom said. “Great touch from ‘KK’ right there and I had a lot of space, so I just tried to shoot it. I’m happy to see it went in.”

The Blackhawks went ahead 2-1 at 4:35 of the second period. Ryan Donato took a no-look backhand pass from Moore and made a quick feed to Nick Lardis, who one-timed a shot from below the left hash marks.

“Just playing our game, putting it behind them and taking advantage of their defensive zone structure and how they play,” said forward Frank Nazar, who returned to the lineup after missing 14 games with a broken jaw. “They’re such a good team at keeping the puck in our zone, so you try to minimize that and play in their zone.”

Staal made it 2-2 at 9:16. The Carolina captain forced a turnover against Artyom Levshunov in Carolina’s defensive zone and skated the puck through the neutral zone before looking off Jalen Chatfield on a 2-on-1 and scoring on a snap shot from the right circle.

“I would have felt bad, the amount of looking off I did there if it didn’t go in,” Staal said. “I got a really nice bounce, just kind of popped it by him. It was nice. I was due for one.”

Chicago took a 3-2 lead at 13:38 when Connor Murphy took a cross-ice pass, stick-handled to the top of the crease and wrapped the puck around Andersen’s left pad.

The Hurricanes tied it 3-3 at 14:20. Logan Stankoven circled the net and passed across the crease for a backdoor tap-in by Blake at the right post.

“Every game right now is important obviously,” Moore said. “I think it’s another mature win. We made good plays at the right times.”

NOTES: Blackhawks forward Jason Dickinson was scratched due to an illness and replaced by Landon Slaggert. … Chicago has won a season-high four straight road games. … The Blackhawks were 5-for-5 on the penalty kill and are 26-for-28 (92.8 percent) in their past 11 games. … Carolina is 11-0-2 in its past 13 games against Chicago, dating back to April 1, 2021. … The Hurricanes have a season-high six-game home point streak (5-0-1).